Austrian Foreign Minister Makes First Visit to Ukraine
Austria's new Foreign Minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, arrived on a visit to Ukraine on 14 March.
This was announced by her and Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria Vasyl Khymynets on the social media platform X.
In Kyiv, she met with her Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha. Together, they laid flowers at the wall of remembrance to the fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
‘Thank you to my dear colleague Andrii Sybiha for the valuable first in-person meeting today in Kyiv. Ukraine is fighting not only for its own future, but also for our European values and freedoms. After the first steps towards peace were taken this week Jeddah, we will continue to support Ukraine until a comprehensive, just and lasting peace is reached,’ wrote Meinl-Reisinger.
Afterwards, she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as she wrote in X. ‘Had the honour to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Stressed Austria’s strong support for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukrainebacked by support of int’l community. It is up to Russia to end its war of aggression,’ the Austrian Foreign Minister wrote.
The minister is also scheduled to visit the Okhmatdyt children's hospital, which was hit by a Russian missile last year. In addition, the foreign minister is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and attend a reception at the Austrian embassy. The event will be attended by representatives of business and humanitarian organisations.
According to Die Presse, the Austrian foreign minister brought 5 million euros to Ukraine for the demining of agricultural land and 2 million euros for the Grain from Ukraine initiative which aims supplying Ukrainian grain to the Middle East.
This is the second trip abroad by Meinl-Reisinger since she took office. Her first trip abroad was to Brussels, where she held talks with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
On 3 March, the new Austrian government led by Chancellor Christian Stocker was sworn in after a five-month political crisis.
As The Gaze previously reported, in November 2024, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said during his second visit to Vienna that Austria would allocate an additional €2 million for the Ukrainian initiative Grain from Ukraine.